REVIEW: THE WILDLING SISTERS, BY EVE CHASE

Four sisters. One summer. A lifetime of secrets.When fifteen-year-old Margot and her three sisters arrive at Applecote Manor in June 1959, they expect a quiet English country summer. Instead, they find their aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their daughter, Audrey, five years before. As the sisters become divided by new tensions when two handsome neighbors drop by, Margot finds herself drawn into the life Audrey left behind. When the summer takes a deadly turn, the girls must unite behind an unthinkable choice or find themselves torn apart forever.

Fifty years later, Jesse is desperate to move her family out of their London home, where signs of her widower husband’s previous wife are around every corner. Gorgeous Applecote Manor, nestled in the English countryside, seems the perfect solution. But Jesse finds herself increasingly isolated in their new sprawling home, at odds with her fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, and haunted by the strange rumors that surround the manor.

My Thoughts: A story that weaves the past with the present while spotlighting those secrets, lies, and broken connections that make all the difference between happiness and pain, The Wildling Sisterscaptured my interest immediately.

We begin with a moment in time back in 1959, watching while something mysterious is happening with four sisters, struggling to hide something.

Fast forward to the present, to Jessie and Will, a newly blended family that includes Bella, a sulky teenage daughter from Will’s previous marriage, and Jessie and Will’s toddler Romy, adorable, cherished, and the object of Bella’s jealousy.

What brought each of these families to the country estate named Applecote Manor, that place where disturbing things happened in a long ago summer?

The four Wilde sisters, nicknamed The Wildlings by their uncle, are spending the summer there while their mother is working in Marrakech. They discover that their cousin Audrey’s disappearance five years before is a defining event that mars this new summer, and suddenly they are caught up in what can happen to a family after a significant loss…and trying to fill the holes in the tapestry of their lives with the answers they seek.

For Will and Jessie, they need to leave London, where Bella has gotten into trouble. They are hoping the country will be a peaceful place of healing. But Bella’s problems are much greater than they can even imagine.

As we travel back and forth in time, the pieces of the puzzle come together, along with a kind of closure. 4 stars.